Are you a recent college graduate thinking about returning to Crawford County to start the next phase of your life, but worried about paying off student loans? A Come Home Scholarship may be for you!

The Community Foundation for Crawford County is now accepting applications for the Come Home Scholarship. This opportunity is available to those who left college within the last 7 years with a degree. Applicants must have student debt and may NOT be living in Crawford County at the time of their application.

Eligible candidates can apply now for an award of $10,000. Award funds must be used to pay off student debt.

Applications will be accepted year-round. Candidate must be a college graduate with an appropriate degree (two-year, four-year, advanced, or trade school certificate) within the last seven years and still has student debt.

Award recipients will be expected to live and work in their communities in order to be eligible for this funding. They must secure a job or create their own business within 120 days of receiving the award. The specific terms and expectations, along with the process for monitoring and evaluating the program’s impact will be up to the entity that is managing the program.

There is no mandatory length of stay in Crawford County. However, if an award recipient moves out of the county during the award program cycle, they would forfeit all future award monies not yet paid.

Many communities in the Midwest are struggling to retain college graduates and lose out on their talents toward economic growth and prosperity. The Come Home Scholarship is a talent retention program and would pay students on the back-end of their college career, but only if they agree to move back home and live and work in Crawford County. First Federal Community Bank donated $15,000 to start CC4CC’s first Come Home Scholarship Fund.

For more information, call the Community Foundation for Crawford County at 419-562-3958 or visit www.cfcrawford.org.

Scholarship Application